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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

"The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight...

[Bread making is] one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony. It leaves you filled with one of the world's sweetest smells... there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel. that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread."

And how I wanted to be a part of that homely ceremony of bread making, to experience that joy, to be hypnotized with that incredibly sweet aroma of freshly baked bread wafting out of my oven and filling all the corners of my home. Yes! that was a long long looong standing wish of mine to bake bread in the cosy nook of my kitchen. And this wish aggravated every time I watched the cookery shows on where they made all types of fancy breads with every flavours imaginable. I equipped me with gathered all the knowledge possible regarding the techniques, the measurements and all the know hows of bread baking. I exactly knew how much flour to sieve, what should be the temperature of the warm water to mix the yeast in, I knew how long to knead the dough till it becomes springy and satiny to touch, I knew how to tuck the kneaded dough underneath to give the buns a smooth finished look. I could even sense the silky smooth stretchable dough in my hands.

So many times I dreamed of mixing the flour and the yeast and then pouring the water and the oil, giving it whatever falvour my mind fancies at that point of time and then kneading that dough to give it a silky springy texture to bake the most incredibly soft and flavourful bread of my life. Every time one of you baked a bread, it instantly gave me a high. I imagined going through this whole process again and again. I wanted to lose all my anger and pain and frustration on the dough while kneading it vigorously as all of you mentioned. But every time I tried it in real life the yeast made me fail miserably. Not once, not twice but thrice. Can you imagine what a heart break that was! But I refused to give up and almost tried all the brands of dried yeast available in the market. Anyone who mentioned Bangalore and bread together in their post I kept on asking 'which brand of yeast did you use'?

Ask Archana who patiently listened to me and gave me suggestions and told me how to proof the yeast, or our very own baking genius Champa whom I flooded with queries. But knowledge is nothing (only for bread baking!!!) Unless you find out that obidient yeast who will listen to all your orders and will rise when asked for (not like my 2 year old, who refuses to do so). But finally and thankfully I got the real thing I have been looking for, for such a long time. When I saw Suma (an amazing, amazing baker. I really wonder how she manages so many things with such ease. Even after taking care of her home, her work, two growing kids, she manages to bake such gorgeous, delicious, luscious goodies on a daily basis…go and check her blog for every baking recipe imaginable) baking some great breads I asked my usual question “which brand” and she gave me the key. The key to make perfect breads every time. And from that day onwards there is no looking back and no more store bought breads for us. Even my family including parents and Brothers are so hooked to it that they don’t like outside breads and pizzas anymore.

Though I have a long way to go and try all the recipes I have bookmarked for so long. Still today I am sharing two basic bread recipes, basic white and 100% whole wheat brown breads.

But before I start let me tell you something about yeast, which is not very easily available in Indian markets. As much as my knowledge goes I have seen 3 varieties here

Fresh Yeast

Dry Yeast

Instant Yeast

If you are in USA you would be spoilt for choices. Here is a great article to guide you through the many varieties available there.

The instant yeast is the most potent one and comes in coarse powdery form. You can directly add this to other ingredients before proceeding to make the dough, whereas this is most difficult to get in India. I use the brand called Gloripan available here.

Dry yeast, is also available in India, which comes in small granular form. You need to proof this before using it in the batter. Mix the sugar with lukewarm water mentioned in the recipe. Mix in the dry yeast and let it rise for 4-5 minutes. You can choose from many brands available in India but personally nothing worked for me.

Fresh yeast could be availed from your nearby bakeries. They come in cake form and have a very strong aroma. Proof as mentioned above.

for every 150gm (5.3oz, 1 cup) of flour in the recipe to use either of:

3 gm compressed fresh yeast (0.1 oz, 1/6 cake)

2 gm active dry yeast (0.05oz, 1/2 tsp)

1 gm instant active dry yeast (0.04oz, 3/8 tsp)

Another thing that I would love to clarify is this long and detailed post is meant for everyone who wants to bake bread in India. We don’t get many good ingredients here and I have learnt from my mistakes to arrive on a system that works for me. This is an attempt from my side to guide everyone who tries to bake bread in their Indian Kitchen.

The white bread dough is very sticky so prepare yourself well to handle it. Tie your hair, remove in rings from your fingers and roll your sleeves for a 10 minutes vigorous massage session.

Mix in the salt and the flour in a big bowl. Clean the counter top and grease it properly.

In a bowl or ceramic cup take the ¾ cup water, dissolve the sugar and mix in the yeast. Give it a quick stir. Pour the milk and 1 tbsp oil. Stir and add to the flour bowl.

Combine everything together to get a sticky batter. If needed add the reserved water little by little.

Take out the dough on your greased counter top, grease your hands and start kneading with the heels of your palm. Stretch the dough away from you, fold again stretch and fold and then give it a half turn. If its too sticky try to grease your palm and the countertop with the reserved oil. If needed add in more oil. Don’t add any more flour that will make the bread heavy.

Keep on kneading till the dough feels dry to touch but is soft and supple. It should spring back when poked (about 7-8 minutes).

When done gather the dough in a ball and place in a greased bowl with enough space to let it rise. Lightly oil the dough too to prevent it from sticking. Cover with cling film and place it in a warm place. I generally place it in my microwave. When the weather is humid and cloudy I keep the light of the microwave on. let it rise for 1-2 hour or till its double in size (mine generally gets done in a little more than 1 hour.

After the first proofing take out the dough carefully on the counter top. Fold it on itself 7-8 times to release the air trapped in it.

Give it any shape you want and neatly tuck the loose ends underneath to give a nice smooth surface on top. Lightly oil the top, cover and again let it rise till it doubles in size.

Towards the end of the second rise, preheat the oven at 190C and bake the bread.

For free standing loaf, braided bread or bread tin loaf bake it for 45 minutes or until the top is golden. If the top browns fast, loosely cover it with foil after 20-30 minutes and bake for the rest of the time.

For small buns bake for 8-12 minutes.

Every oven acts differently and you should be the best judge. But my submission would be to keep an eye after the first 30 minutes.

Once the bread is baked take it out from the oven and brush the top with butter or olive oil for a softer crust.

Let it cool for 5 minutes and then cool on wire rack. This is very important otherwise the steam would not escape and you will end up with soggy bottoms.

Once it cools down completely, slice with a long serrated knife…which I am yet to find.

100% Whole Wheat Bread without vital gluten

This recipe is adapted from the King Arthur Flour website. I am saying ‘adapted’ because I had to change many a things to suit my conditions. This recipe works for me every time like a charm and yields light fluffy 100% whole wheat flour without vital gluten.

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour/Atta: 31/2 cups (I use Ashirwad or Pillsburry)

Lukewarm water: 11/4 cups+2 tbsp or more

Oil: 2 tbsp+2 tbsp

Sugar: 2tbsp

Instant yeast: 21/2 tsp

Salt: 1 tsp

Non fat dry milk: ¼ cup (like Nido)

OR

Milk: 2 tbsp (low fat cow milk or any fresh milk. It should be boiled and cooled)

Any dry powdered milk: 2 tbsp (I used dairy whitener like everyday)

Method:

Mix the yeast to 2tbsp warm water.

In a big bowl mix flour, salt, sugar and powder milk. Add the oil, yeast mixture and 1 cup of water. Mix and add more water if needed. Depending on the quality of the flour, sometimes I have to add 11/2 cup or more water. So its always better to keep another cup of water ready. The flour mixture would be sticky.

Grease your counter top and your palms and start kneading it by stretching, pulling, folding, turning and throwing on your counter top. Trust me its fun. Knead for 8 minutes. Cover with an inverted bowl and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Again knead till its springy for almost 7-8 minutes. Grease your palms as and when needed. It could be sticky but not too sticky. As they say it should not flatten on itself like a pancake when gathered into a ball. It should relax a bit like someone sitting in an armchair. J

Oil the dough lightly on all sides and transfer it to another big oiled bowl. Cover and place in a warm place. I always place it in the microwave with the lights on.

Let it rise till puffy for 1-2 hrs (I give it little less than 2 hours in this humid and rainy weather in Kolkata). Basically the volume should double.

Take it out carefully from the bowl. Fold it on itself for 9-10 times to release all the air and shape it in a neat log with loose ends tucked underkneath.

Place it in a greased loaf tin (mine is 8.5”x4.5”). Oil the top, cover and let it rise for 1-2 hours till it doubles.

Towards the end of the rising time preheat the oven at 175 C. bake for 30 minutes, then loosely cover the top with a foil and bake for another 30 minutes. But check after 45 minutes if its done. Mine always takes close to 1 hour.

Take it out and brush the top with butter. Cool for 4-5 minutes, take it out and cool on a wire rack.

Slice and serve anyway you want.

A Homemaker’s Note:

Don’t add the water mentioned in the recipe at once. Add ¾ of it at the beginning. Read the recipe and check what kind of a dough the recipe calls for and then keep on adding as required.

If you are using active dry yeast proof it as mentioned in the packet.

For basic loaves like mentioned above don’t add flour even if the dough feels sticky, rather use oil to grease everything and keep on kneading.

Giving a resting time between kneading is a good idea, as it will help the gluten to relax and redistribute, yielding a light bread.

Keep an eye during the proofing time too as after a certain period of times the dough will collapse and loose all the air it developed.

Congratulations Sayantani!! What fabulous breads you have been baking! I completely agree that home-made breads are the best, and nothing can compare to the joy of baking our own breads..

Am glad we have some yeast here which really works without fail, I have found the active dried yeast here just doesn't work. your Whole wheat bread looks amazing, will try it soon...Thanks so much for your sweet mention, feel honored!

Very nice..I can understand the joy of baking as it takes several attempts to get what actually in our mind..LOL...after reading your post i am reviving my 'baking interest' again since I moved back to India. but again finding the right product at the right place is indeed a hurdle in Kolkata.

Breaking bread. This was a very good, informative post. Thanks for all the info you have tried to provide. When you say, baking..in India, yes it is tedious. Can you also throw some light on whether you did it in a microwave or OTG? I wish to purchase a m/c that will help me bake not just cakes, muffins but bread, quiche, cookies, etc. Mostly western type of food, but including our Bengali "paturi".

Hi, Surfed to your site while searching for sources of instant yeast or fresh yeast in Kolkata. Your bread looks great! I have so far tried baking bread at home only twice, both the Jim Leahy "no-knead" method. Both times I think the active dry yeast I used didn't work well and the dough didn't rise enough. Have you bought instant yeast here in Kolkata? If so, where? Have you tried this no-knead method? Would love to hear how it worked out for you in this weather.

Hi Prachi never tried Jim's no knead bread recipe. the recipe that I follow for no knead bread need me to beat it with hand mixer. The recipe sounds amazing and will definitely love to give it a try. I guess your yeast is at fault here. try changing it. look for some better quality instant yeast. there's plenty of information in the comments as well. please check.

Yes, I read all the comments after entering mine, and also found your informative post on baking supplies in Calcutta - thanks! Will go to New Market to get some good yeast this weekend. Do post if you try out the Leahy recipe, would love to see how it works out for you!BTW, do you use a toaster oven or do you have a bigger gas oven? I also wonder how much my bread was affected by my small and somewhat rickety toaster oven.

@MEgha, no strong wheat flour is not Maida. Strong wheat flour is high on gluten and is generally used for bread making. if you are making bread then you can use any of maida or strong wheat flour but the texture definitely would be better with the strong wheat flour.to siubsttute strong wheat flour with maida add 1 tsp of gluten to a cup of it.better not to use strong flour in baking cakes or cookies.

HiTried making bread with maida and followed the recipe to the t ! The dough doubled during the time it was outside but failed to rise in the oven , so a little disappointed. Used fresh bakers yeast and it. Was act I've and frothed well.I wonder if anyone knows where I can get strong white flour as I have had good experience with it when I lived in uk. I live in chennai now and can't seem to find a shop that sells it. Please help !

HiTried making bread with maida and followed the recipe to the t ! The dough doubled during the time it was outside but failed to rise in the oven , so a little disappointed. Used fresh bakers yeast and it. Was act I've and frothed well.I wonder if anyone knows where I can get strong white flour as I have had good experience with it when I lived in uk. I live in chennai now and can't seem to find a shop that sells it. Please help !

@Rekha, sorry that your bread experience was not upto the mark. but I dont understand what you mean by it failed to rise in the oven? do you mean the second rise? if so please check how long you left it for the second proofing. if left for too long the yeast will stop working. the reason that it doubled in the first rise am assuming that the proportion of fresh yeast was right (15 gms per 450 gms of white flour).you might find strong white flour at Passionate baking in Chennai. hope this helps

hello...i just wanted to ask which brand of yeast have u used...as i live in assam we don't get variety of yeast here...i only found bluebird dry active yeast here...will this work...pls let me know...thank u...

hi, I had followed ur recipe on brown bread to the tee. However, after baking in my built-in oven (the big one) for 30 min, the bread crust became very very hard.. so, had to take it out of the oven..also the inside of the bread was not cooked properly..and the inside was smelling of yeast..where did i go wrong.?.i stay in gurgaon and got the instant yeast from mumbai...so it was a big disappointing for me.. i used mauripan insant yeast. Pl,help.-rini

@Rini, The built in oven generally reaches a higher temp. at less time as compared to smaller OTGs. plz adjust the temp. accordingly. best is to use an oven thermometer. Brown bread also takes longer to bake. mine takes close to 1 hour so definitely it would be under cooked if you take it out at 30 minutes. even my breads get a thicker crust, so please try covering it with a piece of foil at 30 minutes interval if the crust is browning too much (as mentioned in the recipe). and always brush the top with butter once the bread comes out of the oven. this will result in chewy yet softer crust.

hi.... baked this today.... came out very well.... but slightly dense and heavy.... i used a mix of whole wheat flour and maida.... 1:2...... baked for 35 min at 190.... still a bit moist in the centre.... can u help...

@Rain, once you part replace white flour with atta you need t change the ratio of yeast and liquid. anyways for moist inner I think you need to bake the bread for some more time. check with a thermometer and get the reading right before taking it out.

Hi..first I tried all purpose flour bread.. It was cooked well inside but crust was too hard... I have microwave cum convection Oven.. For this bread... I cooked it till 40 min.Please tell me how to make homemade bread's crust as soft as u get it outside..Also while doing Brown bread.. I need to put more water/milk to mix it up properly and this mixture did not double its size as It was for Maida bread.. can you please tell me what is the exact ratio for half maida and half whole wheat bread?

@Anon. for a soft chewy crust brush the crust with butter once you get it out of the oven.Atta bread dough generally doesnot double in size as the glutten content in it is lower than maida. for half atta half maida, follow the same recipe as atta bread with both atta and maida in 1:1 ratio. adjust the water accordingly as it will need less water than 100% atta bread.

I made the whole wheat bread acc to ur recipe.the outer crust was hard unlike the ones we buy from shop.what cud b the reason pls helpCan we use milk instead of milk pdr in this recipeThanks in advance

@Betsy, The sliced bread that we buy from market are baked in a different type of bread pan which has a cover on it. this way all the sides are baked in a similar manner and you get the top just as the other three sides. you can buy such pans from many online shops if you wish. but when you bake breads with the top exposed to the heat of the oven it will form a crust. also you need to brush the top with butter once it comes out of the oven. thats very important for a soft chewy crust.

Does the texture of the bread differ if we use instant yeast instead of dry or fresh yeast?can we store instant yeast for a long time?cud u tl sme online shop from wre v can buy the sameThanks in advance

If you're a little more adventurous, you could try making sourdough bread from a wild yeast starter. There are directions on youtube and on the web on how to capture wild yeast and grow it but this is what worked for me in Bangalore: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/233/wild-yeast-sourdough-starter. It's quite easy, I'm on my third loaf and the taste is absolutely divine.

@Deepak, Thanks.Vital gluten is available at any good baking ingredient shop. I have not seen any branded gluten yet. In Kolkata its available in Hogg market, In Bangalore try Institute of baking and cake art. INA market in Delhi and Arif in Mumbai. apart from these plenty of other shops stock it and even can procure from online shopping portals.

Who am I?

Mom of a 4 year old hyper active kid, a true blue Bengali at heart, a self employed Designer who strives to strike a balance between her personal and professional life. Holds her family and memories close to her heart. Finds solace in cooking and feeding with love. You will get to see her whip up old Bengali recipes as well as other kinds from allover the world.
Contact: ahomemakersdiary@yahoo.in